Olympics, Fantasy Football, and Dewey

Dewey has been quite exhausting recently. The constant ebb and flow of friends coming to the beach is better than being lonely but can take a considerable toll on your body if just from the drinking. The way we describe it, and this not meant to be targeted, is that whenever people come to visit its "their weekend". By that I don't mean that they require being the center of attention or are being selfish in anyway, but I mean that they are full of saved up alcoholic energy which tends to be infectious. After say three groups of people come down over a week or weekend, each with their own agenda, we (and by we I mean the housemates) end up putting in more hours socializing and boozing then we probably should. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing; you only live once, but at the same time, it is very difficult to focus, particularly in a transition period that I and everyone else in the house is facing with various career goals and changes from the previous status quo. Its definitely a signal I've been going too hard if I'm yearning for some kind of productivity.

The summer has so far been a success. We have a good blend of roommates with relatively limited drama. Most of the drama has come from fairly predicatble situations (relationships + off schedules + alcohol). All of our friends who have come down have been generally generous and low maintenance, with a few glaring exceptions. Molly's going away boat was in her words "fucking awesome" and some of the June weekends were memorable.

Random thoughts:

1) The Brett Farve Saga has been absolutely disgusting. Shame on ESPN for perpetuating this bullshit. This whole thing has really left a bad taste in my mouth about following the ESPN "soap opera" wagon.

Last year, when I drove every day to Harrisburg with only FM and AM (Alyse had the Sirius) and I listened to ESPN radio consistently, I realized how incredibly predicatble and formulated the ESPN machine is. Every news program on ESPN is almost perfectly coordinated to have a day-rank of 5 stories and shove them down your throat via every medium possible. Next time you watch Around the Horn, check the first five stories on PTI, the first five links on ESPN.COM, the stories Jim Rome is "burning on", and what is being discussed by Tirico or Mike and Mike on the radio. All the same. Not only are they only the same, but they often pitch the exact same perspective. The Farve thing was the worst example. Its a monopoly of poor commerical sports journalism. The only guy I still respect there is Bill Simmons

2) . .. . which leads into my next point, that the Olympics is really pretty refreshing. Real sports fans can appreciate the pure competitiveness of "off sports" like tennis (See Nadal/Federer Wimeldon), golf (Tiger at the U.S Open), swimming (Phelps), and even stuff like volleyball and MMA. Its so much more interesting than Farve's text messages or Pacman's new name (Adam!).

3) I've gotten into books on tape recently as my Sirius broke and I was bored driving for work. I've gotten through 1984, Don Quixote, The Old Man and the Sea, and My Life (Clinton's autobiography).

1984: Absolute must read, entertaining to read and more intellectually stimulating and political than Atlas Shrugged. Can't believe i was never required to read this in high school.

Don Quixote: Cultural artifact thats amusing if not relevant

The Old Man and the Sea: Beautiful book thats whimisal, non important, but generally pleasant to listen to.

My Life: Fascinating. Must read/hear. Regardless of how you feel about him its a very revealing recap of the most important events of the 90's.

4) Common social wisdom dictates that really hot girls are not nice and uglier, bigger girls are nice and have good personalities out of necessity. I think this is in fact total bullshit.

5) I'm really pretty excited for fantasy football. If your reading this your probably in the league. My preseason playoff 6 picks:

1) Me
2) My brother
3) Brock
4) Ari
5) Rodney or Brian but not both
6) Blayze

7) Republicans really make me fucking sick. Not the identity or political preference but the political campaign inner circle itself (Newt, DeLay, Bush, Rove) . Hearing about some of the travesties during the Clinton era of Republican moral politics in his autobiography and experiencing how the current campaign is being conducted is reprehensible. How can Obama be blamed for going to repair foreign relations in his European tour? The only logical progression would be a video of Obama saving a baby and making a three pointer and then ending with "OBAMA: HE'S BLACK!".

Come visit Labor Day weekend.